A New Year of Promise by John Belt

Oklahoma City, OK

God has good things in store for 2016. Let your heart be filled with thanksgiving for what His good plans are for you. He is for you, not against you. He gave His only Son so that you would know how real His love is for you by bringing you into His family. Never doubt because His promises are good for you too! He is faithful.

1. Restoration

Psalm 80:3, "Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved."

For all that has been lost God gives us the promises of restoration. God is the ultimate "Restorer". Just as we would take something old and make it like new. God is in the restoring business. He does not look at something and say, "Oh well, I guess this is done." No. He looks at the potential that is in it making plans to restore and renew. That is how He is with our lives. He only has good things in store, so He makes plans to "restore" all. Turn toward Him, believe and actively pursue His promises in surrender to His Spirit.

2. Abundance

John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Jesus came to give us "abundant life", not a "half-baked" life, but life to the full. A life full of the true riches of His Presence and where His "provision" is there, as we follow after the "vision" He has given for our lives. Don't settle for less than God's best. Ask God to give you a fresh vision, because we know that where He gives vision there will be provision. We need vision. We need to see where God is taking us and to actively pursue that vision with all of our hearts as this is what He has called us to in life. Know what you are good for, surrender your heart to God and let Him take you to your destination.

3. Refreshing Drink

John 4:10, Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

"The water that I give you shall be a fountain springing up to everlasting life…" (John 4:14)

God has promised us an eternal well of His Spirit that springs up out of our inmost being. He gives us "free access" to drink of His Spirit. Make room for that in your life. Seek and find the fresh drink from the rivers of His Presence! The river of His Holy Spirit is refreshing and reviving to our hearts. Dedicate your life to drinking from the streams of living waters by soaking in the Presence of God.

Discover the place of "receiving from the Lord". It is good to give to God, but we must also be receivers. Jesus told Peter that unless he let Him wash His feet he could no longer be His disciple. We have no strength in our own selves. Through spending time with the Lord we find that strength as we saturate ourselves in His Presence.

4. Increase & Expansion

Psalm 115:14-15, "May the Lord give you increase more and more, You and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, who made Heaven and earth."

God only gives increase. He only expands and grows us. It is His nature. When we get around God everything prospers, flows and grows. When we get in the place He has set for us then there is an overflow and expansion that takes place in our hearts and lives. Believe God to bring you into His perfectly designed place for you in this new year. Don't feel like you have to settle for where you are when God has something specifically designed for you. Seek the Lord and you will find. He is faithful and will bring you into the promised land of destiny and fruitfulness.

5. Higher Places & Favor

2 Samuel 22:34, "He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places."

We were created for the high places of His Presence. As we humble ourselves before the Lord and pursue Him with all of our heart He will reward us with promotion and favor. Our pleasure is to do His will and please His heart. It is written in the volume of the book, "I have come to do your will Oh God..." Let this be what is written of our lives, the reason why we are on this planet...to do His will. God gives us grace in the higher place. Through worship, engaging in His Presence, God awakens our hearts to His love and joy.

6. The Fires of Intercession

James 5:16-18, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the Heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."

There is a fresh igniting of intercession being lit in America. In an encounter I had recently I saw gatherings where radical abandoned intercession was being released. It was a level of intercession that I had not seen in here before. There was such a cry that the meetings were literally taken over by the intercession while everything else was secondary.

Ask the Lord to ignite you with a heart filled with His fire that beats in sync with His. Prayer changes things. When our hearts are captured in the furnace of prayer then God will respond beyond what we can imagine!

7. God is For You!

Romans 8:31-32, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

God gave His very best for you. He has already done everything that He could possibly do to get you to believe that He wants His best for you. The devil is the one who wants you to believe that God is against you. He is constantly brining accusation against the saints, to bring a heavy stupor over their minds, lying to them about what God thinks about them. Don't give into this for a second. God is FOR YOU! You are His own family. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee.

Are there things that God might want us to change? Yes. Does this mean that He is mad at us? No. It means that He wants His best for us and loves us enough to get the message to us. You are legitimately in His family. He is working for you and with you to bring you to a better place. David prayed, "Take not Your Spirit from me..." This is the most important piece...the peace that comes from His Presence being with us. Quiet the noise of your soul, yield yourself to His Spirit in worship and hear His voice.

Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne." (Amplified)

John and Brandi Belt
Overflow Global Ministries
Email: office@overflowglobal.com
Website: www.overflowglobal.com